1.53 p.m. The final grouping takes to the course, featuring world No. 1 Luke Donald, Francesco Molinari and Nick Watney.

Preview: Lee Westwood leads overnight after the first round of the 76th Masters at Augusta National Golf Club. The world No. 3 shot a 5-under par 67 as he once again put himself in contention to win the major title that has eluded him through his otherwise glittering career.

The British 38-year-old leads by one stroke over South African Louis Oosthuizen and Peter Hanson, who are tied for second after their 67s.

Pre-tournament favorite Tiger Woods shot a level par 72 to end day one five shots off the lead. While his predicted challenger at Augusta, Rory Mcllroy, too hit a better score than he was arguably entitled to with a 1-under 71, despite a double bogey on the first.

It was a day that began with the famous course basked in sunshine in sharp contrast to the thunderstorms that deluged the grounds the previous evening. As a result of the soft ground reducing the difficulty for the players in shooting onto the green, the course was set up tough, especially with regard to the pin positions.

And the early attention was on Woods after his first PGA Tour victory since 2009 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill two weeks ago elevated the 14-time major winner back to the forefront of the golfing landscape.

But Woods was wayward off the tee on the first two holes and things did not get much better with the driver the rest of the day.

Yet the former world No. 1 appeared to have dug out a strong score, before bogeys at 17 and 18 took him back to even.

Didn't hit it very good at all, Woods said afterward, according to the New York Times. Warmed up bad, too, and it continued on the golf course. I just felt my way around today. I made some bad swings.

Woods' round contrasted sharply with that of Westwood whose smooth ball-striking saw him hit 16 out of 18 greens in regulation.

That might have been my best ever opening round in a major championship, Westwood said, according to the Guardian. I hit nearly every fairway and green and rolled in a few putts. I love playing this golf course.

Westwood, who finished second at Augusta two years ago to add to his collection of near-misses in major championships, will be looking for more of the same tomorrow as he looks to stay firmly in contention heading into the weekend.

One man who rivals Westwood for the title of the best player not to have won a major is world No. 1 Luke Donald. The money leader on both PGA and European tours last season did not have the best day after shooting a 75, but it almost got a whole lot worse when at one point it appeared that he might be disqualified.

Donald's scorecard read that he had shot a 73, but it was determined that the error was as a result of a fax machine smudging one of the scores entered on the card, rather than a mistake on the part of the player.

While Donald can now rest easy in his bed overnight, the same may not be true for Henrik Stenson. The Swede looked set for one of the rounds of the day after two eagles took him to 5-under as he teed-off on 18. But a quadruple bogey 8 on the last took him back amongst the pack at 1-under.

While that isn't a disaster, the mental scarring maybe difficult to overcome heading into day two.